From Brian Swiderski.
The main problem with his thesis, though I agree with much of it, is that no one said “failure is not an option” in the sixties. That happened with Gene Kranz’s book and the movie, in the nineties.
Category Archives: Space
Planetary Science
…and sequestration. Which is looking more and more likely.
Obviously, if I were running the agency, and didn’t care what Congress thought, I’d just cancel SLS and Orion. Webb should go, too, but the sequestration goal can be met with those two alone. I’d cancel Webb if I could redirect the money elsewhere. But Charlie and Lori aren’t going to have that option as long as Dick Shelby and Barbara Mikulski are calling the shots. So we’ll continue to waste billions on unneeded rockets and capsules, and an overpriced telescope, while planetary science goes fallow.
The Zenit Launch Failure
Looks like a failed hydraulic pump, which took out its steering capability.
Ten Myths About Columbia
From Jim Oberg.
Ten (And Three) Years Later
Jeff Foust remembers two February-first space-related anniversaries, related to each other.
We Must Move On
Sea Launch
Had an expensive oopsie.
At least they didn’t wreck the launch platform this time. But it’s not helpful for coming out of bankruptcy. I wonder if this is another symptom of the problems that the Russians have been having (yeah, I know that Zenit is Ukrainian, but as Marcia Smith notes, Sea Launch is mostly owned by Energia RSC)? Speaking of which, if Congress was really worried about safety (not to mention non-proliferation), they’d be accelerating commercial crew, and getting us off our dependency on the Russians ASAP.
Columbia’s Last Minutes
The prologue to my book, over at PJMedia.
Actually, I’ll probably expand a little more in the book, though.
NASA’s Mission Is Not Safety
My column, on the tenth anniversary of the Columbia loss, at USA Today.
After Ten Years
Enduring lessons from Wayne Hale.
Unfortunately, the NASA culture is ill suited to take many of them.